Chapter Three

Summoned by UNIT

"Doctor, I don't believe this," Jason was protesting. "We've been trying to get to Earth for how many years and now that we finally manage it, you're telling me we have to go back?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you," the Doctor replied firmly. He was standing in front of an open roundel in the TARDIS console room. Inside was an odd looking device he had told his companion was a space-time telegraph. It had a stream of tape issuing forth, a portion of which was in the Time Lord's hands. He had left a twin to the device with UNIT HQ in London, having giving specific instructions that it not be used except in an emergency.

Jason gave him a dubious look. He and the Doctor had only just left the Earth after assisting in a combined effort of UNIT and NATO to remove and destroy an alien device that could have annihilated all life on the planet. It had been the Alterran's first visit to Earth and had come about after years of abortive attempts.

It seemed to Jason that only minutes had passed after the TARDIS dematerialized that the device in the roundel had sprung to life. After reading the message, the Doctor announced they were returning to Earth.

"Are you sure that's not the message Alistair said he was sending?" Jason challenged.

"It isn't from Alistair," the Doctor informed startlingly. "It's from a Colonel Crichton in the year 1983."

Jason scowled. "How far out is that from when we left?"

The Doctor was already at the control console resetting the coordinates. "About three years, give or take a month or two."

"Swell."

The Doctor looked up and grinned. "Just look on the bright side, Jason. You'll finally get to use your new UNIT paperwork."

"Double swell," his companion replied unenthusiastically. "Now I get to be shot at all over again."

The Doctor gave him a disapproving look.

Jason pulled out the UNIT paperwork and frowned down at it. "This won't be expired by then, will it?"

Before the Doctor could reply, the room was filled with the sound of the TARDIS materializing. The time rotor nestled into the center of the central control console. "Well, you'll be able to find out. We've arrived." He pulled the door lever, opening the exterior door. He took a long frock coat from the hat stand near the door and put it on, winding an impossibly long scarf around his neck before striding out the doors.

Jason sighed, looking down at himself. Might as well change too. His body shimmered as he transmuted, his clothing going from shorts and a tee-shirt to a light-colored long sleeve shirt, blue jeans and sneakers. This will have to do, the Alterran thought before following the Doctor out of the TARDIS.

As Jason sat listening to Colonel Crichton explaining the situation to the Doctor, he found himself wondering if the man was deliberately ignoring him or if he had somehow managed to finally master the art of invisibility along with his ability to transmute. After the Doctor had introduced him as his traveling companion, the Colonel had not even graced him with a sideways glance. Granted, he had taken on the appearance of a nineteen year old human male, Jason thought, but that did not give the man the right to summarily dismiss his presence in the room. He ran a hand through his tangle of black curls, and gave a loud sigh.

"Are we boring you, young man?" the Colonel asked sharply, finally turning to look at him.

Jason gave him an innocent look and then looked around. "Oh, are you talking to me, Colonel?" he said astringently. "I thought I'd become invisible."

The Doctor cleared his throat and gave his companion a warning look. It was ignored.

"It's bad enough that I have to sit through this epic tale of espionage that could easily have been related in a few sentences," Jason said as he got to his feet. "But to be summarily dismissed as insignificant is insufferably rude. I've met lunatics with better manners than you."

The Colonel's mouth dropped open in amazement. "Is this boy always so…blunt, Doctor?"

"This boy," Jason replied sharply, "is more than twice your age, Colonel."

The Doctor nodded when the officer turned to him for confirmation. "He's over a hundred, in fact," he said mildly.

"I would think the man running UNIT would realize that not everyone who appears human actually is. Especially when that someone happens to be with the Doctor," the Alterran snapped angrily. He threw a glance in the Doctor's direction. "Since you obviously don't need me, I'm going back to the TARDIS. I have work to do in my lab." He did not wait for a reply and stormed from the room.

When the Doctor returned to the TARDIS, he found his companion in his lab sorting though his herb collection and recording his most recent acquisitions. K-9 was at his feet, happily supplying any pertinent information as to classification.

"You were a bit hard on the Colonel, don't you think?" the Time Lord observed mildly.

Jason looked up, his blue eyes seeming to glow as they caught the light. "Maybe. I'm just so sick of—" He broke off, wondering how his friend would take what he had to say. "No offence, Doctor, but I'm getting tired of playing second fiddle to you all the time. I have been around a long time and I do have a brain in my head, y'know."

The Doctor gave him a knowing look. "You'll pardon my saying this, but I think your blueblood is showing just a tad."

The Alterran's eyes flickered. He was an aristocrat by birth and had an agreement with the Doctor to keep his "Lord Krystovan" persona in mothballs during his time in the TARDIS. "You don't have to be a Marquis to recognize a boor, Doctor."

"At least he didn't accuse you of being an American this time round."

Jason could not help but smile at this. For some inexplicable reason, the TARDIS telepathy circuits, which translated the spoken language on whatever planet they happened to land, had chosen to give Jason what would be considered an American accent on Earth. And very probably everywhere else they had landed, he reflected.

"So, now what? Is it off to Iceland for us?" Jason asked as he pushed his collection aside.

The smile on the Doctor's face broadened. "No, actually. We have one stop to make first."

His companion's eyes narrowed suspiciously. There was something in his friend's tone that made him weary. "And…" he said guardedly. "Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like where we're going?"

"According to Colonel Crichton, we may well find ourselves up against the KGB again."

"Oh, this just gets better and better," Jason moaned. "I thought you said the Cold War ended in the future. Glasnost, perestroika and all that."

"I'm afraid we're three years from start of the thaw in the Cold War," the Doctor replied. "And old Mikhail doesn't take office for another two years."

"So, the KGB are still a bunch of gun toting thugs."

"That's putting it bluntly, but yes."

"Let me find my bullet proof vest, then," Jason said as he got down from his stool.

The Doctor turned, leading the way out the door. "Actually, that's not the problem."

"Getting shot at isn't a problem?"

"The problem is they may already have the artefact in their possession."

Jason nodded. This made sense. "And…"

The Doctor threw a quick look over his shoulder. "We may need help stealing it back."

Jason stopped dead in his tracks. "Doctor, you don't mean…?"

"Mean what?" came the Doctor's amused voice from out in the corridor.

"If you tell me we're going to the North Downs, I may have to do you an injury."

"Alright. I won't tell you." This was followed by a delighted laugh.

Jason closed his eyes and groaned. "Someday, Doctor, I will kill you," he said as he vanished through the door.